Nail of the Day: Jamaican Out

Today's nail of the day is the beautiful, tropical peach-coral shimmer of China Glaze's Jamaican Out! The colour of this nail polish caught my eye right away in the store (I buy all my China Glaze at Sally's Beauty Supply) but I love it that much more on my nails. It's a hard colour to describe... probably because it can't decide what colour it wants to be! At first glance it's an orange toned coral, add in some shimmering gold, and then a hint of pink in the sunlight. It's exceptionally flattering (even on my pale skin!) and I feel like I should be sitting on a beach, sipping a pina colada, while wearing this nail polish. If you could only have one colour for this summer, I would recommend this one.

The only problem I faced with this was my common problem with China Glaze, chipping. The polish would not stay on my nails (and I used a base coat) and they didn't even last a full day - especially because I type a lot now that I'm an architecture intern!! More on that later. But yea, the formula was not adhesive at all. Also, HUGE WARNING: this polish stains. My toenails are now yellowy-orange thanks to this polish.

A New Home for my Collection

My wonderful father, an engineer and hobbyist/carpenter, built me a new shelf for my apartment after I was complaining about having nowhere to store my polishes. Look what he came up with! It's 7 shelves (one more than in the picture) because I anticipate adding quite a few more (I have 3 Julep polishes coming in the mail and I know that I will not be able to resist the new Germany collection from OPI!). It has one inch plexiglass slats on the front so that the bottles won't fall out but I can still check out all my lovely colours! :) I'm so excited if you can't tell. I used to keep them all higglety-pigglety in a box which is really bad for them, I know, I know. I currently have them ordered somewhat by colour and I'll probably keep it that way, at least for a while. How do you guys store your polishes?

Nail of the Day: Rusty

Nails of the Day are back! I finally completed my work on the berry farm and have proceeded to give my hands a much, much needed manicure. I can't believe I've let myself walk around in public with the gruesome stubs where my beautiful nails used to be...I was forced to cut them all down and I still grieve for the length that I had previously attained. Over the weekend, I was back in Montreal and while at the drugstore I saw a sale on Gosh Cosmetics. Now, I love Gosh. Their products are hyper-pigmented and my go-to for anything bright. If you ever need a coloured eyeliner - get Gosh. Gorgeous colours that stay on for hours. But I had never purchased any of their nail laquers. I guess I always figured that, if I was going to spend $10 on a polish, I wanted Essie or OPI.

I picked up "Rusty" - a red-toned bronze shimmer for only $1.75! Yes!!! $1.75. Cheapest nail polish I've ever bought. I actually really like the polish. It applied evenly and was opaque in two coats. The finish is nice, though the colour is not original in my collection. Bronze polishes are really growing on me though - they're pretty and rich but not too in-your-face. It's a bit more red-toned than most of the bronzes I prefer (I look better in gold-toned browns). For $1.75 though, I could not have wished for anything better! I am very pleased with this purchase and, if money allows, will probably purchase more Gosh polishes in the future. Although, I am saving up for a haul of the new OPI Germany colours...

OPI Fall 2012 Release: Germany

AHH!! This much excitement must only mean one thing, OPI has released a preview of their upcoming Fall collection, available August 8th. They continue on their famous country-themed collection with the release of "Germany". The collection has a few offbeat shades and a combination of pale cremes and vampy microglitters. Until I see swatches, I can't be sure which of these I will be adding to my collection but I'm sure there will be a few. What do you all think!? (The picture is a colour chart I found on nailingthis.com, not my own).

Strawberry Fields Forever

Hello everyone! Sorry that I've been a tad MIA for the last few days, I happen to have gotten a job for the week - picking berries at the local farm near my place. I know, who would've thought that a beauty obsessed girl from the city would be working in the field for 8 hours a day? Not me. No that I dislike the job, it's hard but rewarding, but the damage it's done to my nails is heartbreaking :(. Not only are my whites and cuticles permanently stained red and there is dirt so far under my nails that no amount of scrubbing will ever get them clean, but they're dried out and flaking from all the water and dirt that they've been exposed to, my hands are sunburned and peeling, and I've been forced to cut all my nails down in order to do my work efficiently. It's a nail junkie's worst nightmare! I promise to have more swatches out soon, sometime next week when I've finished my work and have given my hands some serious TLC. The strawberry fields are quite inspiring though... some fruity or country themed nail art to come, perhaps?

Nail of the Day: If You Moust, You Moust

When I heard that OPI was releasing the Vintage Minnie Mouse Collection for summer, I was extremely excited. I love all things Disney and I even had a Minnie Mouse themed bedroom as a child. I had looked over a lot of preview swatches before they were released last week and I was disappointed that not a single one of the colours excited me! :( The collection only contains 3 colours and a topcoat. The three colours are "If You Moust, You Moust" - a blue-toned pink creme, "I'm All Ears" - a shimmery fuschia, and "The Color of Minnie" - a red colour. OPI also included a topcoat called "Nothin' Mousy 'Bout It" - a pinkish based topcoat with big heart shapes suspended in it.

Although I was disappointed that there were no colours that really... jumped at me when I looked at the swatches, I decided that I needed to honour the lovely Miss Minnie and purchase at least one - and I went with "If You Moust, You Moust". I'm so happy to announce that I was pleasantly surprised! Despite the slightly excessive amount of pink polishes in my collection, this colour is somewhat unique. Most of my pinks are warm-toned (which I don't understand because cool toned colours look better on me... I really need to be less impulsive) and the cool toned ones that I do have are darker or more purple. The only way to describe this colour is ... the perfect Barbie pink. I love it!

The application was sensational, opaque in two coats (almost a one-coater), shiny and smooth. OPI maintains its place as #1 in my heart. Minnie Mouse forever <3

Nail of the Day: Navigate Her

In February, I bought a mini-collection of Essie's Spring Collection 2012. It had four colours - for more information, read my post about "To Buy or Not to Buy". Today, I'm wearing another polish from this collection: Navigate Her. It's a beautiful, creamy, pistachio green. I don't usually wear green polishes, I'm always afraid they'll make my fingers look dead and creepy. This one was a pleasant surprise! It's bright enough to be a fun colour for spring/summer but it is subdued with enough grey so that it's not an overpowering colour. The application is better than a lot of other Essie polishes that I've tried. It's very pigmented and the finished product is true to the colour in the bottle. In two coats, it's opaque and smooth. Not as streaky as Essie polishes are known to be. In my opinion this is a lovely polish and a must-have colour in any collection. Essie outdid itself with this one!

Buying Nail Polish Online

A year or two ago my brother gave me the OPI mini set of colours from the Espana collection and at that time in my life I was still biting my nails and never really wore them painted. I never really tried or wore any of those colours for another year or two afterwards at which point I instantly fell in love with OPI's "No Spain, No Gain". It's a rich purple-pink berry tone that has enough colour for summer and is rich enough for fall and winter. It's my absolute favourite shade and I depleted my mini bottle very quickly (even finishing a mini-bottle is rare. Some polishes I've only worn once or twice). Hence, my hunt for a full size of this colour started. Living in Canada, it's hard to get my hands on OPI (it's easy enough to get a new collection but hard to find any other OPIs) and I hit all the salons and beauty supply stores that sell OPI- very few where I'm from. Nowhere to be found. Of course.

A couple of weeks ago, after trying and failing to scrape the very bottom of my mini bottle, I caved and ordered a bottle on eBay for about $16 (this includes international shipping because I had to order from North Carolina). I was absolutely terrified after hearing horror stories of people who receive fake OPI online but after receiving mine today, I'm fairly confident that it's real. Especially comparing it to my swatch from my mini-bottle. Phew! Huge sigh of relief on my part. Has anyone had any bad experiences with fake polishes? I did a bit of research and here are a few things to check when you're purchasing an OPI polish:

-Make sure that the F on Fl and that the L on mL are capitalized
-If you have other OPIs, compare the font on the front and back of the bottle
-Make sure that the label on the bottom of the bottle is double layered and matches those on the bottom of real OPIs
-Make sure that the bottom of the bottle is smooth
-On the top of the brush near the handle, there should be "OPI" written on the side
-There should be a serial number printed on the bottle (usually this is near the bottom on the back)

Although I am fairly certain that this bottle is real, I'm still hesitant to purchase any further polishes online. Until the point that I fall passionately in love with another colour I can't find. And we all know that that's bound to happen. Sigh.

Nail of the Day: Niecy

Today I finally tried out the second bottle of Julep polish that came with my Introductory Maven Box that I wrote about a little while ago. Introducing... Niecy! "A bright pink polish for sunny days", as described by Julep. There's really nothing else I could add to that description, it's pretty spot on. The colour is rich and cremy, I was surprised at how amazing the application was, especially after reading all the awful reviews about Julep. The colour was opaque in one coat and wasn't streaky. I may put on another coat just to make sure there are no bald spots but in a rush it's not at all necessary.  The following pictures are only one coat of Niecy in sunlight and in artificial light. It was a hard colour to capture - it looks more neon in the pictures than in real life.

This polish is very pretty and applies well, however, the colour is not unique in the slightest and I have several polishes of the same colour in my collection already. Not a must-have.

Project: How to Make a Pinboard

Hello! This weekend I was back in Montreal to finish painting my new apartment and build a ton of IKEA furniture like the pro engineer that I pretend to be. It was what I needed to get myself working on all of the projects I have lined up for my room. Today I made myself a really pretty, super simple pinboard. It's both beautiful to look at and functional! If you don't know what I'm talking about, a pinboard is basically just a board where you can put notes, pictures, postcards, magazine cutouts etc.etc. Here's what I ended up with:

Pretty cute right?! All you need is: A corkboard, some batting to add volume, ribbon, nails or pushpins, a piece of fabric thats about 3 inches bigger than the corkboard on all sides, scissors, a staplegun and a hammer.

1. Lay the fabric down so that the right side is down against the table (or whatever workspace you're working on). Cut the batting so that it's the same size as your corkboard. lay this in the middle of your piece of fabric. Then turn the corkboard over and place it on the batting, with the right side facing down.

2. Pull the fabric up and over to the back of the corkboard on one side. Hold it fairly tightly and use the staple gun to secure it in place. Then do the same for the other sides. It works best to do the top, then the bottom, then the two sides. Make sure to keep the fabric taut when stapling. Fold in or trim off the corners of fabric.

3. Create a crisscross pattern on the front of the board using your ribbon. Secure each piece at the back using the staple gun.

4. Place a decorative nail/pin in the centre of each spot where the ribbons overlap. Hammer them into the board to make sure that they're secure.

Voila! Easy peasy pinboard, done. If I had to redo this, I'd make sure that my pins were in straight lines.. My slight OCD may compel me to fix that at some point in the future.

Nail of the Day: You Callin' Me a Lyre?

When I saw that OPI had released a collection inspired by the New York City Ballet, I was ecstatic - or more like, in a fit of happy girly giggles. The little girl who dreamed of being a ballerina-fairy-princess stirred inside of me and I had to have at least one of the beautiful feminine polishes. I picked up "You Callin' Me A Lyre?" - the soft peachy pink colour in the collection.

Now... I have a love-hate relationship with this polish. I tried so, so hard to love this polish. I really wanted it to become my new favourite or make any impression at all on me... but I was left slightly disappointed. The colour in the bottle is so soft and girly - the collection is part of OPI's "Soft Shades" collection so I knew it was going to be sheer and subtle. But it was more than sheer and subtle. It's almost... clear. The colour barely even shows up on my nails and the pictures below are of 4 (FOUR!!) coats. You can still clearly see the whites of my nails, which I expected but .. I guess I didn't expect them to be so drastically visible. The jelly finish on this polish, however, is gorgeous. It's so squishy and shiny and ... beautiful! It looks like my normal nails but... better, or something. It makes me feel put together but not over the top. It reminds me of days when I wear my favourite underwear, and though no one else notices, I feel prettier because of it haha.

Well, here are the four coats of glossy "You Callin' Me a Lyre?". Like I said, I have a love-hate relationship with this polish and though I would never repurchase, it's a little gem in my collection that I don't want to part with. Sigh. I'm such a sucker for all things girly.

Nail of the Day: To Buy or Not to Buy

A couple of months ago, when I was procrastinating on studying, I was exploring the shopping district of Montreal by my apartment and I discovered the cutest little nail and beauty shop ever! So exciting! Well, they were selling the Essie Spring Collection as a set of four minis - cheaper and better than buying ful size bottles in my mind because I've never (seriously, never) emptied a full bottle of polish in my life - I have too many colours to choose from for that to ever happen. Well, it came with Ole Calient (a corally red), Navigate Her (a pistachio creme), Tour de Finance (a blue-based pink duochrome), and To Buy or Not to Buy (a shimmery perfect lilac- and the colour of the day!). With the exception of Tour de Finance - a colour I already have many dupes of- I love all these colours. Every single one is great.

Today I am showing you To Buy or Not to Buy. In the bottle, it has various blue, pink, and silver duochromes but these do not show up on the nail when painted. This appeals to me as I am a huge fan of creme finishes, but be wary if you buy this colour for all its pretty shimmer - you'll never see it. The colour is white based but not nearly as streaky as most other white-based Essie polishes. It takes at least two coats, three to be perfect. Its cool toned but not too harsh against my skin. It's just a lovely, pretty colour.